Pune, May 10 – Scientists at the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) are actively working on a humanoid robot capable of participating in frontline military operations, with the goal of reducing risk to soldiers in high-threat environments.

As per agency report, the project is being spearheaded by the Research and Development Establishment (Engineers), one of DRDO’s premier laboratories, which is developing a robot that can perform complex tasks under direct human command.

S. E. Talole, Group Director of the Systems and Technologies for Advanced Robotics Centre at R&DE (Engineers), revealed that the team has been engaged in the development of this humanoid robot for the past four years. “We have developed separate prototypes for the upper and lower body, and during internal trials, the robot has successfully completed several tasks,” he said.

The robot is being designed to operate effectively in challenging terrains such as forests, where traditional machines might fail. The prototype was recently showcased at a national workshop on Advanced Legged Robotics held in Pune, where it drew considerable attention for its potential military applications.

The team is currently focusing on enhancing the robot's ability to interpret and execute operator commands, a crucial capability for real-time deployment in dynamic battlefield scenarios.

United Nations, April 4 – India has secured the 36th position out of 170 countries in a global index assessing readiness to adopt frontier technologies, marking a significant improvement from its previous ranking. The findings were released in the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) Technology and Innovation Report 2025.

According to the report, India showed notable progress compared to its 48th position in 2022. The index evaluates how prepared countries are to embrace critical and emerging technologies that are reshaping global economic and social landscapes. It takes into account indicators such as ICT deployment, skills, research and development (R&D), industrial capacity, and access to finance.

India ranked third globally in R&D readiness, 10th in industrial capacity, 70th in access to finance, 99th in ICT deployment, and 113th in skills. As per agency report, the country’s rise in the index reflects its improved performance, especially in research and innovation-related activities.

The report highlighted that countries like India, China, Brazil, and the Philippines are among the developing nations showing strong performance in technology readiness. It noted that while high-income countries are typically expected to be more prepared for advanced technologies, some developing economies have outperformed expectations relative to their per capita income.

UNCTAD emphasized that developing countries must brace for a world rapidly evolving due to artificial intelligence and digital transformation. While developed nations dominate the top rankings, countries like Singapore, China, and India are closing the gap and are already within the higher echelons of the index.

In the field of artificial intelligence, India ranked 10th in terms of investment, having invested USD 1.4 billion in 2023. The United States led the global AI investment landscape with USD 67 billion, accounting for 70 percent of global AI investment, followed by China with USD 7.8 billion.

The report projected that by 2033, the global AI market could reach USD 4.8 trillion, playing a pivotal role in digital transformation. However, it also pointed out that access to AI infrastructure and expertise remains concentrated in a few economies, with most of the top 100 AI companies based in the US and China. Together, these two countries contribute nearly 40 percent of global spending on AI research and development.

India’s progress in the global technology readiness index underscores its growing capabilities and ambitions in shaping the digital future, especially as the world witnesses rapid advancements in frontier technologies.

New Delhi, April 1 – In a significant move to empower investors and streamline access to financial documents, users can now store and view details of their demat accounts and mutual fund holdings through DigiLocker, the government's digital document storage platform. This facility has come into effect starting April 1.

As per agency report, the initiative is expected to help reduce the volume of unclaimed assets in the Indian securities market and protect investors' interests. DigiLocker, a flagship digital service by the Government of India, allows citizens to securely store and share official documents in digital form.

Previously, DigiLocker offered access to bank account details, insurance policy certificates, and National Pension System (NPS) account summaries. With the latest update, users can now retrieve and store their Consolidated Account Statement (CAS), which includes a detailed summary of shares and mutual fund units held in their demat accounts.

The platform also allows users to add nominees to their DigiLocker accounts. This ensures that in the event of the user’s death, legal heirs or family members can access the necessary documents more efficiently, facilitating the management of the deceased's financial assets.

In addition, the DigiLocker system can now update account statuses by using information from death certificates or details received from KYC Registration Agencies (KRAs). Upon confirmation of a user’s death, the system automatically notifies the nominee through SMS and email, aiding in the prompt handling of the investor’s estate.

To enable seamless integration, Asset Management Companies (AMCs), Registrar and Transfer Agents (RTAs), and depository institutions are expected to register with DigiLocker. This will allow investors to access their mutual fund and demat account details directly through the platform.

Market regulator SEBI is aiming to reduce issues like inactive accounts and missing contact or bank information by promoting the use of DigiLocker, ultimately minimizing unclaimed securities in the market.

New Delhi, February 16 – The All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), Delhi, has deployed a state-of-the-art surgical robot in its general surgery department, making it the first government hospital in India to integrate such cutting-edge technology for routine and complex surgical procedures.

Professor Dr. Hemang Bhattacharya, a senior surgeon at AIIMS, highlighted that the introduction of robotic surgery underscores the institute’s commitment to enhancing patient care, performing intricate procedures with unmatched precision, and keeping pace with global advancements in medical technology. He emphasized that this initiative marks a strategic move towards elevating healthcare standards in India’s public healthcare sector.

The surgical robot offers an expansive three-dimensional view of the surgical field and provides enhanced dexterity through robotic arms, allowing surgeons to execute complex procedures with remarkable accuracy. This technological advancement is expected to revolutionize challenging surgeries, including colorectal procedures, esophagectomies, and pancreatic surgeries, which have traditionally posed significant challenges due to their intricate nature.

Dr. Bhattacharya explained that the robotic-assisted surgeries will not only reduce complications but also accelerate patient recovery, minimizing hospital stay durations and optimizing post-surgical outcomes.

Delhi, 15 May (H.S): India's technology sector has been booming in recent years, and this has been reflected in the country's recent achievement of surpassing major countries like Australia, Hong Kong SAR, Japan, Singapore, and Korea in data centre capacity. According to a private report released on Wednesday by real estate consultancy CBRE, India now has the highest data centre capacity of 950 MW in the Asia-Pacific region (excluding China). The report also predicts that India will continue to lead in this area, with a projected capacity addition of 850 MW during the 2024-2026 period, surpassing other major APAC countries. This success can be attributed to the sector's resilience and potential for attractive returns, making it an attractive opportunity for investors. In fact, the report states that between 2018-2023, India secured investment commitments of over USD 40 billion from both global and domestic investors.

This growth is expected to continue as new supply is planned for 2024, potentially increasing the total stock of data centres by 30 percent annually to reach approximately 1,370 MW. With such impressive growth and investment opportunities in the data centre sector, India is poised to solidify its position as a leader in the Asia-Pacific region and attract even more attention from investors.

Mumbai (Maharashtra) [India], February 17: The Indian Micro Fertilizers Manufacturers Association (IMMA) concluded its 4th National Crop Nutrition Summit in Mumbai, unveiling a series of agritech innovations that echo Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s vision of revolutionizing Indian agriculture with drone technology. This landmark event marked the debut of sophisticated AI-driven drones and digital soil scanning technologies by pioneers Aries Agro Limited, Multiplex Drone, and many others, heralding a new dawn for farming efficiency and sustainability in India.

Dr. Rahul Mirchandani, President of IMMA, shared, “The technologies showcased at the summit are monumental in advancing toward a future where every farm in India can harness the efficiency and precision of AI and digitization. These innovations exemplify the transformative potential of agritech in enhancing crop yield, minimizing resource waste, and promoting sustainable farming practices.”

The event spotlighted various agri-tech solutions for precision farming, real-time crop monitoring, aerial spraying, and comprehensive data analytics. Meanwhile, Aries Agro introduced a revolutionary soil testing kit, offering instant and accurate soil health assessments to enable informed crop nutrition management.

“The integration of these advanced technologies into everyday farming practices is a testament to India’s readiness for a digital agricultural revolution,” stated Mr. Sameer Rajan Pathare, Vice President of IMMA. “Embracing agritech is pivotal for the sector’s growth, contributing significantly to national food security and environmental sustainability.”

The summit not only served as a platform for technological unveilings but also fostered critical discussions on ‘ease of doing business’ policies for enabling the innovative products to reach the market. A blockbuster panel of experts including industry, government, legal professionals and innovators discussed policies that will serve as catalysts for agri-tech adoption, liberalised licencing, export promotion and rural digital infrastructure development. These conversations underscored the necessity of supportive policy frameworks and public-private partnerships in achieving the widespread implementation of agritech solutions.

As the 4th National Crop Nutrition Summit concludes, the path forward for Indian agriculture is clear—embracing AI, digitization, and sustainable technologies is crucial for transforming the sector. IMMA remains committed to spearheading this change, advocating for policies that facilitate the adoption of agritech innovations, and working towards a future where technology-driven farming is the norm across India.

About Indian Micro Fertilizers Manufacturers Association (IMMA):

The Indian Micro Fertilizers Manufacturers Association (IMMA) is a leading organization committed to the advancement of India’s agricultural sector. Established with a vision to promote sustainable farming practices and innovative agritech solutions, IMMA plays a pivotal role in advocating policies that support the growth and development of the agro-industry. Through various initiatives, including conferences, summits, and collaborations, IMMA aims to empower farmers, influence policy-making, and contribute to a sustainable and prosperous agricultural future for India.

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New Delhi, Feb 16 (IANS) ChatGPT maker OpenAI has unveiled Sora, a new text-to-video model that can generate videos up to a minute long while maintaining visual quality and adherence to the user’s prompt.

Sora is a diffusion model, which generates a video by starting off with one that looks like static noise and gradually transforms it by removing the noise over many steps.

“Sora is capable of generating entire videos all at once or extending generated videos to make them longer,” the company said.

In addition to being able to generate a video solely from text instructions, the model is also able to take an existing still image and generate a video from it, “animating the image’s contents with accuracy and attention to small detail”.

Similar to GPT models, Sora uses a transformer architecture, unlocking superior scaling performance.

The company said it is making Sora available to “red teamers (domain experts) to assess critical areas for harms or risks”.

“We are also granting access to a number of visual artists, designers, and filmmakers to gain feedback on how to advance the model to be most helpful for creative professionals,” OpenAI said in a statement.

Sora will be able to generate complex scenes with multiple characters, specific types of motion, and accurate details of the subject and background.

“The model understands not only what the user has asked for in the prompt, but also how those things exist in the physical world,” according to OpenAI.

Sora can also create multiple shots within a single generated video that accurately persist characters and visual style.

The company, however, admitted that the current model has its own weaknesses.

“It may struggle with accurately simulating the physics of a complex scene, and may not understand specific instances of cause and effect. For example, a person might take a bite out of a cookie, but afterward, the cookie may not have a bite mark,” explained OpenAI.

The company further said that it will take important safety steps ahead of making Sora available in OpenAI’s products.

“We are working with red teamers — domain experts in areas like misinformation, hateful content, and bias — who will be adversarially testing the model. We’re also building tools to help detect misleading content such as a detection classifier that can tell when a video was generated by Sora,” the company explained.

New Delhi, Feb 15 (IANS) PC and printer major HP on Thursday unveiled the all-in-one (AIO) moveable PC -- the 'Envy Move' in India for flexibility in work and entertainment.

The HP Envy Move AIO comes available at a starting price of Rs 1,24,999.

The PC offers a 23.8-inch QHD touch display and is designed to be portable for at-home learning, entertainment, video calls and work. It is thin and light, weighing 4.1 kilograms.

The new Envy AIO comes with a keyboard pocket in the back to easily store a wireless keyboard when on the move. It is equipped with up to 13th Gen Intel Core i5 processor and integrated Intel UHD graphics.

"The Envy Move AIO is meant to adapt to a user’s every need, including at-home entertainment. It comes with an IMAX-enhanced display, ensuring consumers an immersive experience of IMAX-quality visuals, audio and premium digital content. Its adjustable HD camera and HP Enhance Lighting help keep users in the spotlight," the company said.

Moreover, the company mentioned that the new PC makes video calls a family experience with an HP Wide Vision 5MP camera, ensuring nobody is left out.

It comes with a range of in-built security features for consumers in the hybrid lifestyle era. The camera comes with a manual privacy shutter.

Additionally, enhanced privacy controls include the Walk Away Lock, which automatically turns the screen off as users leave.

New Delhi, Feb 14 (IANS) OpenAI is testing “memory” for its AI chatbot ChatGPT, which will allow the bot to remember information about you and your conversations over time.

You can explicitly tell ChatGPT to remember something, ask it what it remembers, and tell it to forget conversationally or through settings.

“You can also turn it off entirely. We are rolling out to a small portion of ChatGPT free and Plus users this week to learn how useful it is. We will share plans for broader roll out soon,“ OpenAI said in a statement.

“ChatGPT’s memory will get better the more you use it and you'll start to notice the improvements over time”.

The users can turn off memory at any time. While memory is off, they won't create or use memories.

“If you want ChatGPT to forget something, just tell it. You can also view and delete specific memories or clear all memories in settings,” the company informed.

If you’d like to have a conversation without using memory, use temporary chat.

“Temporary chats won't appear in history, won't use memory, and won't be used to train our models,” said the company.

GPTs will have their own distinct memory. Builders will have the option to enable memory for their GPTs.

“Like your chats, memories are not shared with builders. To interact with a memory-enabled GPT, you will also need to have memory on,” said OpenAI.

New Delhi, Feb 12 (IANS) As Valentine's Day approaches, cyber-security researchers on Monday said that romance scams are on the rise in India and 66 per cent of people in the country fell prey to an online dating scam.

In 2023, 43 per cent of Indians became victims of AI voice scams and 83 per cent of those who were scammed lost money.

In recent years, romance scams have undergone a chilling transformation, merging traditional tactics with advanced technologies like generative AI and deepfakes, according to a new report by Tenable, the exposure management company.

“AI-generated deepfakes have become sophisticated enough that more than two-thirds (69 per cent) of Indians say they cannot differentiate between AI and a person’s real voice,” the findings showed.

Scammers are now leveraging generative AI and deepfake technologies to create more convincing personas in romance scams.

“I strongly advocate for heightened vigilance when coerced away from established platforms into private conversations, where the protective layers of the initial site are forfeited. Regardless of the involvement of generative AI or deepfakes, the watchword is caution,” said Chris Boyd, staff research engineer at Tenable.

Celebrity impersonations, particularly targeting older demographics, have become widespread.

These scams often originate on platforms like Facebook, tricking victims into a false sense of security, the report mentioned.

“A troubling trend emerging is one where scammers routinely target older individuals, especially those who are widowed or suffer from memory loss,” the report added.

According to researchers, requests for money from newfound connections should sound immediate alarm bells.

It's crucial to scrutinise photographs and videos that deliberately conceal background details, hindering online verification, they advised.

“Awareness and vigilance are our best defences against these heartless manipulations, ensuring that love seekers don't fall victim to the tangled web of AI-enhanced deception,” said Boyd.

New Delhi, Jan 30 (IANS) Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk has announced that his brain-computer interface company Neuralink has successfully achieved its first human implant, and the test subject is recovering well.

Musk said that the company's first product, called Telepathy, would bring control of a phone or computer just by thinking.

Neuralink last year received the US Food and Drugs Administration (FDA) approval for human trials and said in September it was looking for its first test subjects for the six-year initial trial.

"The first human received an implant from @Neuralink yesterday and is recovering well," Musk posted on X late on Monday.

"Initial results show promising neuron spike detection," he added. The first Neuralink product is called Telepathy, informed Musk.

According to the billionaire, it will enable control of your phone or computer, and through them almost any device, just by thinking.

"Initial users will be those who have lost the use of their limbs. Imagine if Stephen Hawking could communicate faster than a speed typist or auctioneer. That is the goal," Musk further said.

In November last year, the brain-computer interface company raised an additional $43 million in venture capital, according to a filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

The filing showed that the company raised its previous tranche, led by Peter Thiel’s Founders Fund, from $280 million to $323 million in early August.

Thirty-two investors participated in the round, as per the filing. Neuralink, which was founded in 2016, has developed a sewing machine-like device capable of implanting ultra-thin threads inside the brain.

The threads connect to a custom-designed chip with electrodes that can read data from groups of neurons.

"The PRIME Study (short for Precise Robotically Implanted Brain-Computer Interface) aims to evaluate the safety of our implant (N1) and surgical robot (R1) and assess the initial functionality of our wireless brain-computer interface for enabling people with paralysis to control external devices with their thoughts," the company had said in a statement.

New Delhi, Jan 21 (IANS) Google has introduced new ways to make it even easier to unsubscribe from unwanted emails in Gmail on the web and mobile.

The tech giant has now added the unsubscribe button to the hover actions in the thread list on the web.

"When the unsubscribe button is clicked, Gmail sends http request or an email to the sender to remove your email address from their mailing list," Google said in a blogpost.

On mobile, the company moved the unsubscribe button from the three-dot menu to appear more prominently in your email on your Android and iOS devices.

The company said that these features are now available to all Google Workspace customers and users with personal Google Accounts on web and iOS devices and are rolling out now on Android devices at an extended pace.

Since people receive unwanted messages from brands and organisations despite initially signing up that often originate from legitimate senders and marking them as spam can negatively impact those senders' email, the company has revised the text of its buttons so users can choose between unsubscribing or reporting a message as spam more clearly.

"We're changing the text of the buttons to make it clearer for users to choose between unsubscribing or reporting a message as spam," Google said.

Meanwhile, Google has added a new feature in Maps that will let users navigate in tunnels or other satellite dead zones.

The company added support for 'Bluetooth beacons' and has rolled out widely on Google Maps for Android, however, it still missing in the iOS version of the app, reports 9to5Google.